CNBC.ca - Canadian National Baptist Convention

Prepare for CNBC's 50 Days of Fasting and Prayer

By Hamish Buntain
CNBC Strengthen Team Leader

Scott McKnight in his book “Fasting” defines this Christian discipline as “the natural, inevitable, response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life.” I find his definition both helpful and challenging. It is helpful because it shapes my thinking about fasting as that which is natural, inevitable, and as response and it is challenging for the very same reasons. 

I like that in response to a grievous, scared moment that it is natural and inevitable for believers to suspend the habit of eating to seek God. The succession of multiple tragedies in Japan was one such moment. Overwhelmed by the incredible far-reaching results of earthquake, tsunami, and the escape of radioactive materials into the environment who would think of racing off to the nearest McDonalds for a Big Mac. No, thoughtful people naturally and inevitably find themselves wanting to respond in some fashion before God. Even godless people speak of praying at times like these.

And while liking this definition I find it difficult to embrace. I am a product of my own culture that is often blind to grievous sacred moments and even when seeing them will often respond by turning away to fix its attention on some other more pleasing subject. This propensity has become a way of life and as a result we often fail to perceive the grievous sacred moments of life; and even if we do, we have lost the knowledge of knowing how to respond.

In the scriptures, God’s people were led by their leaders to respond to the grievous, scared moments by fasting before God. When confronted by sin, they fasted. When confronted by imminent national disaster, they fasted. When confronted by the absence of God, they fasted. When confronted by God’s judgment, they fasted. They fasted not because they sought to manipulate God into doing something different but because it was the natural and sensible thing for God’s people to do; to act in any other way that suggested that life was okay, or that somehow they would figure a way out of the current mess, was for them, sacrilegious. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter: fasting is the believer’s way of seeking God in the grievous sacred moment.

The grievous sacred moments before us as Canadian Christians abound. Too many of our churches have seen too few trust Jesus and follow Him in discipleship. Too many of our churches are not focused on Jesus’ mission of making disciples of the nations. Too many of our people are failing to discover all that God has purposed for them in Christ. The children of our nation are growing up ignorant of Jesus. Canadian teens are bored with life and adults are vaguely aware of emptiness within and are not sure how to fill it. Where is the community transformation that is supposed to come with the presence of our churches who herald God and the gospel?

Admittedly, these are things that only God can do. Only God can open the eyes of those who are blind to the truth of the gospel. Only God can bring conviction about sin. Only God can create faith in the human heart and only God can give life to the spiritually dead. So is it not a grievous sacred moment when we as a family of churches “see” the sad condition of our nation? Is it not a grievous sacred moment when we begin to recognize our own misalignment with God? Is it not a grievous sacred moment to “see” so little community transformation? Is it not a grievous sacred moment to realize that God seems mostly absent from our lives, our churches, and our nation?

So what can we do? We can do what believers through the ages of done when confronted with the grievous sacred moment. We can fast and pray that God would have mercy upon us; that He would send His Spirit to work powerfully in us and across this land that there might be a great turning of hearts to Him; that the churches of this land might be inadequate to hold those returning to Him. We can implore God with the words of Isaiah, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down . . . “

Continue to plead with God that He might have His way with us. For those of you who are yet to join us in our season of prayer and fasting, let me encourage you to do so now. We need your participation and so do the lost of Canada, for who knows that God might yet have mercy on us.

Please refer to the Encounters with God booklet for some helpful suggestions on fasting. The booklet is on the CNBC website if you do not have a copy. And remember the expectation is not that you would fast for all 50 days but that you would choose one day—or one day a week for the 50 days—that you would set aside for fasting and prayer. I am not an expert on fasting but am eager to join you in this season where together we plead with God to do a mighty work in us and across our nation of Canada.

Click on a language link below to download a pdf of the booklet in English, French, Chinese or Korean. 

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